


The Looking Glass World

by Gohandinhand



Series: All in the Golden Afternoon [6]
Category: Pitch Perfect (Movies)
Genre: Baby!Fic, Bechloe babies, Breastfeeding, But hey maybe angst too who knows what could happen!, Childbirth, Domestic Fluff, F/F, Family Fluff, Kid Fluff - Freeform, Kid!Fic, More fluff of course it's always fluff, Pregnancy, The multichapter is finally happening and it could take us anywhere!
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-04
Updated: 2018-03-07
Packaged: 2018-08-19 11:15:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,411
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8203937
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gohandinhand/pseuds/Gohandinhand
Summary: It might make her sound full of herself, but Beca's pretty sure she's got a good handle on this parenting thing after two years.Which is why Penny managing to throw everything into complete and utter chaos from day one is... startling.





	1. sunshine (on a cloudy day)

It’s a rare gorgeous Tuesday afternoon in LA; warm but not muggy, bright and sunshiney with a few stray clouds - exactly the sort of day that Chloe would usually demand to spend at the beach.

Which is why it’s so weird they’re in the hospital, Chloe perched on a bed in a hospital gown and biting her lip as she stares down at a stack of papers on a clipboard.

Exactly three weeks previously, a grim-faced Julia had informed them at Chloe’s thirty-four week appointment that the baby still hadn’t turned head-down. If that didn’t change, it meant a c-section. Chloe diligently did the homework Julia assigned her - essentially, being upside down for several hours a day - but that didn’t stop them from ending up here at the hospital, about to attempt a procedure to manually turn the baby.

Chloe frowns and looks up from the paperwork, shooting a pleading glance at where Beca is pacing in front of her.  “Beca, I don’t know if I can do this.”

Beca sighs, running a hand through her already mussed hair, and sits gingerly next to Chloe.

“You don’t have to. It’s up to you. But we did all the research; you know it’s safe and in the _very slight_ chance something goes wrong, we’re in the hospital for a reason. But she’s still breech and if we don’t fix that you know Julia can’t deliver her.” Chloe’s silent for a few long moments and Beca rubs her back, feels when Chloe leans into her for wordless comfort.

“How are we doing in here? All set?” A nurse bumbles in, interrupting the quiet spell, and Beca doesn’t answer, just turns to watch Chloe chew on her lip once more. She heaves a sigh and scrawls her signature across the consent form before holding it out to the nurse.

“Yeah, we’re ready.” Chloe grimaces as the nurse scans over the paperwork quickly and then nods once, decisive.

“Great! Dr. Goldberg will be along soon. I’m just going to go ahead and get you set up with the tocolytic and let that start working its magic. Then you need a hep-lock...”

The nurse prattles on and Beca makes a face, leaning to Chloe. “I have no idea what she’s even saying,” Beca murmurs into her ear, and tries to hide her smirk when Chloe badly smothers her laughter.

“Needles,” Chloe summarizes succinctly and Beca grimaces. Chloe grins at her dismay before they both straighten into innocent expressions when the nurse eyes them suspiciously.  
“Beca’s scared of needles,” Chloe offers up and Beca resists the impulse to elbow her wife for offering her up like the pig on the platter.

“Well, it’s a good thing she’s not the one getting poked, isn’t it?” The nurse is deadpan, and Beca _hopes_ she’s trying to joke, but - honestly, she can’t tell.

“Either I’m super out of practice with sarcasm or we have Nurse Ratched with us today,” she mutters when the nurse leaves to go grab Chloe’s medication.

“Beca Mitchell, did you just make a joke with a _movie reference?_ ” Chloe gasps with a toothy smile, and Beca rolls her eyes.

“My dad’s a lit professor, babe. I read that when I was like, twelve. Which, thinking about it now, was definitely _way_ too young…” Beca muses.

“Well, your dad is kind of a sociopath,” Chloe says cheerfully and Beca does an internal fist pump at successfully distracting Chloe from her minor panic.

Nurse Ratched comes back to set up Chloe’s IV, and Beca holds Chloe’s hand while determinedly _not_ looking at whatever is going on at her arm. (If she’s the one squeezing Chloe’s hand instead of vice versa, well, Chloe’s too nice to point it out.)

The drug takes effect quickly and Chloe face flushes before she weakly tells Beca that she’s feeling dizzy. The nurse has her lay down on her left side and watches the heart rate monitor - keeping a close eye on the baby’s heart rate, she informs them.

The doctor finally shows up, wheeling in a portable ultrasound machine and cheerfully whistling. Beca wants to deck him in the face. Instead, she helps Chloe roll to her back and holds her hand while Dr. Goldberg smooths the ultrasound wand across her belly, carefully checking the baby’s position again.

“Okay, so you have an anterior placenta so that’s going to make this a little harder,” the doctor explains somberly, and Beca nervously side-eyes the four nurses that are now in the room with them.

“Does that make it more dangerous?” she cuts in, and Chloe’s grip tightens on her hand.

“No no no, not more dangerous,” Dr. Goldberg assures them, and Beca rubs her thumb across Chloe’s hand reassuringly. “It just makes the chance of success a little lower, and I’m sorry Chloe, but it will likely be a bit more painful for you, too.”

“Great,” Chloe says dryly, and Beca knows that Chloe’s got to be _extremely_ stressed to be resorting to sarcasm.

The thing is that the procedure - an “external cephalic version”, apparently it’s not common enough to be granted a name that isn’t a medical mouthful - literally involves the doctor pushing on Chloe’s stomach to force the baby to turn into the correct position. It sounds - and looks, judging by the youtube videos they watched - quite painful already, so the news that anything is going to make it harder is far from welcome.

From what Beca can tell, Chloe’s got three different monitoring systems strapped to her stomach, three nurses hovering nervously over her and another one watching the heart rate monitors as the doctor starts prodding at Chloe’s stomach. One of the nurses is holding the ultrasound wand to Chloe’s stomach as the doctor gets a good feel for where the baby is, and Beca can tell when he starts to put some force into his pushes because Chloe’s hand clamps down on Beca’s.

Chloe is always _such_ a trooper (one of the reasons, although not the main one, in their decision for Chloe to carry both their children was how much of a _wimp_ Beca is with pain), but Beca watches as Chloe grits her teeth and hisses with pain. When Chloe’s eyes well up with tears, it’s a nonvoluntary reaction - like breathing, or blinking, or pulling back from a burn - for Beca’s to immediately follow suit. She wants to slap the doctor, make him hurry up, _stop hurting Chloe_ , but instead she kisses her forehead, combs her fingers through her hair, wipes away the tears that have leaked out of the corner of Chloe’s eyes.

Finally, _finally_ , Dr. Goldberg sighs and takes a step back from Chloe’s bedside.

“Okay, she’s not cooperating. I can get her to move a little bit but she’s not flipping all the way, although I can’t figure out what’s impeding her.”

“So now what?” Chloe croaks, her voice thick with unshed tears, and Beca’s breath catches for a second in an echo of shared pain.

“Well, we have a few options. The baby tolerated that without any issues, so we could try again. I know you didn’t want one, Chloe, but we’ve seen higher success rates with an ECV when we administer epidurals. That way you’re not in pain, and it allows your uterus to be more relaxed which should theoretically make it easier to turn her. Otherwise… we’re going to have to book you for a cesarean. In which case, you’re getting an epidural anyway,” he points out.

Chloe rests her head back on the pillow, closing her eyes as she furrows her brow.

“Do you guys need a couple of minutes to talk it over?” the doctor asks politely, and Chloe pops her eyes open again, glancing questioningly at Beca before turning back to him.

“No, I think… let’s go ahead and try it again with the epidural,” Chloe says, and Beca squeezes her hand and nods at the doctor to back Chloe’s decision.

“Alrighty, then. I’m going to go ahead and put the order in, you guys hang out here and the anesthesiologist shouldn’t be too long.” Dr. Goldberg departs, three of the nurses trailing after him like ducklings, just Nurse Ratched hanging back to continue watching the monitors.

Beca does her best to entertain and distract Chloe, filling the room with inane chatter about one of the insane pop stars she’d worked with the day before. Beca _hates_ small talk, but there’s just about nothing she wouldn’t do for Chloe. She’s in the middle of complaining about an insane proposal to add bagpipes to the track when Chloe cuts her off in a small voice.

“Beca? I think my water just broke.” Chloe’s lip trembles and Beca freezes for a moment as the nurse rushes over, promptly paging the rest of the medical team back into the room.

Everything is suddenly chaos, a half dozen people flying back into the room. There’s somebody between Chloe’s legs, collecting a sample for testing to make sure it’s amniotic fluid, while another nurse is wheeling the ultrasound machine back into place.

“Chloe’s right, amniotic sac is ruptured,” Dr. Goldberg finally announces. “Looks like it’s go time, ladies.”

Chloe is sobbing and Beca is trying helplessly to comfort her from the side of the bed as a fresh torrent of tears rushes out at the doctor’s words.

“ _What_ is a go? Can somebody please tell us what is happening now?” Beca barks, and she’s surprised when an unexpectedly soft Nurse Ratched is the one that pulls up a chair to sit down in front of them.

“Okay, since Chloe’s water broke, we are out of time to attempt another version. We’re going to need to get her in for a c-section as soon as possible. I know you were worried about a really fast labor again because of your history, but we do have the benefit of having given you that dose of terbutaline earlier, so that should stop you from going immediately into active labor. We’ve changed the anesthesiologist request to stat, so we’re going to wait for him to get here and then we’re taking you in for an emergency cesarean, Chloe. Does that make sense to you guys?” the nurse explains gently, and Chloe sniffles, wiping her nose with her wrist before she nods.

“Is the baby okay?” Chloe asks, because _of course she does_ , even though she’s the one about to having major fucking surgery.

“She’s fine!” the nurse assures them. “Her heart rate has been great, no decels, she’s not showing any signs of stress. Although I do want to prepare you so it doesn’t alarm you - since you’re only just 37 weeks we are going to have a team from the NICU in the OR to check her out after she’s born, just as a precaution.”

Like many things, it turns into hurry-up-and-wait; the anesthesiologist has to handle more emergent cases before coming to place Chloe’s spinal block. Chloe looks _terrified_ as they wait - Beca can’t blame her - and to keep her calm, Beca ends up climbing into the bed with her, spooning Chloe and shooting a ferociously quelling look at any of the medical professionals around them who look like they might object. Chloe steadies with the contact, as Beca knew she would, and she keeps her calm until the anesthesiologist finally arrives twenty five minutes later.

Beca helps Chloe sit up and sits carefully in _front_ of Chloe and holds her hands while behind her, the anesthesiologist prepares to shove a huge-ass needle into Chloe’s spine.

It goes in easily the first time - thank god, because even if Chloe wouldn’t have lost it with repeat attempts, Beca definitely would have.

“Okay ladies, we’re going to wheel Chloe down to the O.R. now. Beca, you can’t go in quite yet, we’ll take you in in a bit but for now we’ll take you to change into scrubs while we finish prepping Chloe.” Beca squeezes Chloe’s hands tightly once, twice, and then presses a fervent kiss to Chloe’s lips before an orderly unlocks the wheels on Chloe’s bed and starts pushing it towards the door.

Nurse Ratched shows Beca to a tiny room down the hall and presses disposable, one-size-fits-all scrubs into Beca’s hands for her to pull on over her clothes. The door closes behind her, leaving Beca in the silent room and she stares unmoving at the pile in her arms, noting absently that her hands are shaking.  

After a couple of minutes of processing - this was absolutely not what Beca had expected to be happening on this Tuesday afternoon - she pulls the scrubs on, trying futilely to adjust them to stay up on her tiny frame (one-size-fits-all stuff was always _bullshit_ ).

When she exits, Nurse Ratched (Beca notes distantly that she feels kind of bad for the nickname now, but she can’t remember the nurse’s actual name and does it really _matter_ right now anyway?) directs her to where she’ll wait for someone to bring her to the O.R. when it’s time. She paces for a few minutes, unable to keep still and needing to direct her anxiety somewhere, before she remembers that they haven’t updated anybody on what a shitshow their “simple” trip to the hospital has turned into. She fumbles her phone out of her pocket underneath the voluminous disposable pants and takes a few tries to unlock it, trembling fingers not quite cooperating as she tries to locate the contact for Elizabeth Beale.

Her mother-in-law picks up after just two rings and cheerfully jumps right into conversation.

“Hey Beca! You guys on your way home? How did it go?” Beca tries to answer and has to stop and swallow thickly when nothing but a croak comes out.

“Um, actually,” she starts slowly. “There was a… complication.”

“What?” Elizabeth asks sharply. “What’s going on, Beca?”

“Chloe’s water broke. She’s, uh, they’re doing an emergency cesarean now, I’m just waiting for them to bring me back.”

“Oh my god, Beca. That’s it though, right? Baby’s okay?”

“Yeah, yeah, she’s fine,” Beca assures her. “But they couldn’t get her to flip before Chloe’s water broke so here we are,” she sniffles.

Elizabeth’s voice changes, gentles. “It’s going to be alright, Beca. What do you need? Do you want me to stay home with Alice or come to the hospital?”

“No, no, stay there for now. I’ll call you soon, I think?” Beca says. “I totally wasn’t prepared for this to happen today. I have no idea how long this is supposed to take - I don’t really know what’s going on,” Beca says unsteadily and she ignores the handful of tears that drip off the end of her nose.

Elizabeth makes a soothing noise and Beca inhales shakily, trying to get herself back under control. “Okay, Beca. That’s okay. I’ll just wait for you to call with an update. Don’t worry about us, I’ll just be here with Alice, okay?”

A nurse down the corridor calls for “Mrs. Mitchell?” and Beca hurriedly hangs up with Elizabeth, practically jogging down the hall. The nurse prepares her for what she’s about to come into - they’re already starting the actual surgery, she’ll just be sitting next to Chloe’s head and helping keep her calm - and Beca nods, resolute, ready to do anything Chloe needs.

The operating room is _freezing_ , oddly bright, and Chloe is strapped to the table like she’s on a cross. Beca can see Dr. Goldberg with a scalpel to Chloe’s abdomen and a line of red when she walks through the door and she hurriedly looks away before she sees something traumatizing.

Chloe is trembling and Beca isn’t sure if it’s from the cold or her terror or even whatever anesthesia they’ve pumped into her at this point. She sits in the chair they’ve placed for her next to Chloe’s head and starts stroking her forehead the way she knows always calms her down. Chloe’s teeth chatter and she tells Beca she feels nauseous, and the anesthesiologist adds something to Chloe’s IV and Beca sees her face smooth out a little bit.

“Okay Chloe, you’re just going to feel a lot of pressure now!” Dr. Goldberg calls from the other side of the curtain and Chloe grimaces her acknowledgement. A couple more minutes of chatter from the doctors - Beca tries to ignore the requests for scalpels and different tools she can hear flying around - before Dr. Goldberg lets out a loud whistle. “Okay, I see her right here and it’s no wonder that version failed, Chloe. It wouldn’t have worked even with the epidural. She is _wedged_ in between your ribs and the placenta here! Thomson, help me work her out…” the doctor trails off and Beca smiles hesitantly down at Chloe.

“Here she comes, babe. Are you ready?” Chloe smiles widely, tear-stains and all, and a few seconds later a piercing cry sounds through the operating room.

“Aaaaand here she is! Tiny little thing but feisty!” the doctor laughs, and he holds her up so they can see her over the curtain. It’s mildly terrifying - she’s still gross and gooey and Beca knows, _slippery_ , so for the love of god stop holding her up in the air like that, and it’s been so long since Beca’s seen a newborn she seems so tiny in his large hands. But she’s crying and red-faced and Dr. Goldberg hands her off to the NICU team, who take her over to the isolette to start checking her over.

“Go, go be with her,” Chloe urges, and Beca obeys, pressing a few kisses across Chloe’s face first.

The newborn _is_ tiny, it turns out - just under six pounds, the scale reads. But the neonatologist proudly informs Beca that her daughter isn’t having any trouble breathing or maintaining her body temperature. “A bit on the small and early side, but perfectly healthy,” is the pronouncement. They swaddle her tightly, and then suddenly she’s in Beca’s arms.

“Go introduce her to mom,” the specialist grins, and Beca feels like she’s in a daze as she walks the short distance back to the head of Chloe’s operating table.

Chloe can’t really move - she’s strapped down and Dr. Goldberg is still busy carefully closing her incision - so all she can do is sort of turn her head to the side. She catches sight of the baby and her mouth falls open in a perfect O as more tears drip down the side of her face.

“She’s tiny but she’s perfect,” Beca says proudly through her own tears. “And look, Chlo,” Beca says, tugging the tiny cap off to show Chloe the dusting of bright red fuzz across her head. “I think this stubborn nugget takes after somebody else I know,” she teases, and Chloe smirks at her.

“In looks, sure, but that stubbornness is all you, Beca.”

“Yeah, I guess that’s fair,” Beca breathes, distracted as she carefully lowers Penny down so Chloe can nuzzle into her. Her fingers twitch at the end of her restrained arms, and Beca knows she’s desperate to get a chance to _touch_ her baby, but all she can do for now is breath her in, rub her nose along one tiny cheek.

They’re so distracted with her that it feels like Chloe’s surgery is finished in no time. A pediatrician takes the newborn back to finish her testing and Beca follows, assured that they’ll take her to Chloe’s recovery room when the newborn exam is done.

The room they do the exam is in warmer, although still hospital-cold, and the baby squawks loudly in protest as they unwrap her from her warm little burrito. She turns red again immediately, clearly furious, and Beca catches her tiny hand and coos to her, trying her best to soothe her. They do the heel prick test, which Beca forgot how much she _hates_ , and the tiny baby gets so upset her screams go silent for a moment.

“I didn’t think newborns could get this angry,” Beca says worriedly, and the doctor laughs.

“You’ve got a little spitfire here for sure.”

 

Finally, what feels like ages later, Beca follows a nurse wheeling the little cot down the hallway into one of the recovery rooms. Chloe is laying on the bed, half awake and almost as pale as the sheets she’s laying on, but when they come in the door she’s immediately wide awake and reaching her arms out pleadingly.

“Here you go, mom!” the nurse says cheerfully as she scoops the fussy baby up and passes her into Chloe’s arms. Chloe unwraps the swaddle immediately, eagerly taking in the sight of ten perfect fingers and toes and a tiny button nose.

“I cannot believe that hair,” Beca snorts when Chloe tugs the hat off again.

“I can!” Chloe croons at the baby. “It was like a 50% chance, Becs.”

“I guess I should have expected it, this one was such a troublemaker,” Beca teases back, and Chloe finally takes her eyes off the baby to shoot a playful glare at her.

“We can still keep the name we chose though, right?” Chloe asks, and Beca shrugs.

“Whatever you want, Chlo.” Privately, Beca thinks _you just had your abdomen sliced open and a baby pulled out of you, I will do whatever you want right now,_ but externally she just shrugs.

“So she has a name?” The nurse asks, and Chloe nods.

“Penelope,” she coos at the baby - at Penny, Beca corrects herself - and the nurse smiles.

“Well, we can do the birth certificate right now if you want to.” Penny grouses and wrinkles up her tiny face, inelegantly shoving one fist in her mouth.

“Can I feed her first?” Chloe asks. “Can I even nurse her right now? The drugs, I don’t know…”

“Absolutely!” the nurse assures her. “It’s perfectly safe for her. And remember, your milk isn’t even in yet. Do you want me to help get you set up?”

Beca can’t help but snort out a laugh, trying to smother it when Chloe shoots her a glowering look as the nurse glances over at her, confused.

“No, I’m fine,” Chloe says sweetly over Beca’s wheezing.

“She’s still nursing our two year old,” Beca finally adds, and the nurse smiles in understanding.

“So we’ve got a pro here, then. Well, positioning around the incision can be a little different, so let me know if you have any questions.”

“Oh, I didn’t even think about that,” Chloe says thoughtfully. “I can’t really move yet, the epidural hasn’t worn off…”

The nurse talks them through the basics of a strange position and then Beca helps Chloe get situated. Despite pretty much having to lay face down across Chloe’s chest, Penny immediately latches on vigorously, filling her tiny tummy while Beca watches nervously to make sure she doesn’t smother herself in Chloe’s breast.

“She is _so_ small, Becs. I swear Alice was never this small.”

“Well, she wasn’t,” Beca points out. “She’s just under six pounds, babe.”

“Oh my god, really?” Chloe says, looking down at Penny with a shocked look. “How was someone so small so stubborn?”

“She’s my daughter?” Beca laughs. “Okay, I’m going to call your mom back and give her an update.”

“How is everyone?” Elizabeth answers the phone demandingly, and Beca grins.

“Great. Everyone is great. Chloe is recovering well, baby is tiny but great, she’s nursing now. And you're going to love this - she's a red head.”

“I knew we'd get at least one,” Elizabeth says smugly. 

“Yeah, yeah, your genetics are superior and are taking over the globe, blah blah,” Beca teases. "Um - I know you're dying to meet her right away, and that had been the original plan, but..."

“Oh god no, let Chloe recover in peace,” Elizabeth immediately agrees. “We'll stay here with Alice and bring her by - well, let's see how everyone is feeling tomorrow. Oh, but Beca - at least send me a picture of that baby right now!”

“Uuuumm… give us a few minutes to get her off the boob?” Beca says, and Chloe laughs and then makes a pained face. “Yeah, I’ve got to go help Chloe with that, talk to you soon!” Beca says and hangs up quickly. “Are you okay?” she immediately goes to Chloe, and Chloe rolls her eyes.

“I’m _fine_ , Bec. Hell, I'm still sort of numb. It’s just a bit sore when I laugh, so try not to be a wiseass for a few hours?” Chloe smirks. Beca wrinkles her nose at her and then carefully lifts a sated Penny away from Chloe’s chest and lays her down in the cot.

“Noooo!” Chloe whines, and Beca laughs at her this time.

“Just for a second. Your mom wants pictures and I know you’re fine nursing in front of people but I feel like you probably don’t want me to immortalize post-birth nudes?”

“Okay,” Chloe pouts, “but then I want her right back.”

“Deal, sweetheart,” Beca soothes. Penny is calm - for the first time since she was born, Beca notes - and full and she blinks her unfocused eyes slowly in Beca’s direction. Beca snaps a few pictures on her phone, declares it good enough, helps Chloe fix her hospital gown, and deposits Penny back in her arms.  

She crafts a text message to send to a picture to her in-laws, and on a whim decides she may as well send it to the Bellas too.

_Penelope Rose, 5:52pm, 5lbs 15oz_ _  
_ [image attached]

 


	2. (feels so good) all you can do is smile

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> coming home.  
> (finally)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *swoops in out of nowhere to update after a year and a half*  
> Kudos to [junkle](http://emilyjunk.tumblr.com) for taking on beta duties! Give her some love.

Nothing about the hospital stay is peaceful. 

It’s one thing after another: Chloe’s stomach doesn’t play well with morphine and it’s all she can do for a few hours to avoid throwing up on the baby. Then Penny officially develops jaundice, landing herself in the nursery overnight to lay under the bilirubin lights to treat it. Then, absolute cherry on top, Chloe’s incision develops an infection, necessitating several extra days in the hospital to get that under control. 

And as it turns out, two-year-olds aren’t allowed as hospital visitors - which Beca begrudgingly admits is maybe a good idea, considering the grubby hands she can be sure Alice is currently sporting despite not seeing her in days. But that doesn’t make it suck any less. 

Beca had planned on splitting time between the hospital and home with Alice and her in-laws, but with all the complications that had cropped up, she camped out in Chloe’s room on the rock hard pull-out bed for the entire stay, unwilling to leave. It was by far the longest they’d ever been away from Alice - Chloe and Beca had both had to go on short trips for work, but never for more than a few days, and they’d never both left her at the same time. Chloe worried about it incessantly, and Beca tried to soothe her with reassurances that Alice was having a blast with Chloe’s parents, who she  _ adored _ , but it wasn’t enough to convince Chloe that Alice wouldn’t hate them for abandoning her. 

“She’s already going to feel replaced with a new baby taking up our attention, and now we’ve just disappeared on her,” Chloe had sobbed on day five, and honestly, Beca didn’t disagree. 

So it is with palpable excitement that they prepare to leave the hospital after nearly a week of staring at the same four white walls. Chloe is under strict orders not to strain herself in  _ any  _ way, so Beca carries their things down to the car before returning for the final trip. She buckles Penny - now a whopping six pounds - into her car seat and picks it up, beaming at Chloe who is being settled into a wheelchair by a nurse. 

“Beca?” Chloe frowns, and Beca’s forehead creases in concern as she looks over at her wife.

“What? Are you hurting?”

“Those flowers you got me are gorgeous, but I can’t wait to never see them again.” 

Beca wholeheartedly agrees. 

 

* * *

 

Her mother-in-law has clearly been lurking impatiently by the window waiting for them to arrive, because she appears outside as soon as they pull up into the driveway. Beca can only be thankful for it, because getting Chloe in and out of the car is a carefully coordinated maneuver to avoid stressing her healing incision. Elizabeth pulls open the back door where Chloe is sitting next to Penny, sporting the grin that Chloe absolutely inherited from her. 

“Come here, let me see my darling, precious baby!” Elizabeth croons at them, and Chloe smiles up at her. 

“Hi, mom! I missed you too!”

“Oh, sweetheart, I did miss you, but I was talking about Penelope,” Elizabeth deadpans, and Chloe’s smile drops. Her mother snorts out a laugh and holds her arms out to her daughter. “I’m kidding, you’ll always be my baby. Come here, sweetie. Careful, careful.”

Trusting Chloe to her mom’s capable hands, Beca opens the opposite car door and carefully unsnaps Penny’s seat from the base, trying not to jostle her. 

“Let me help carry everything inside,” Paul says from Beca’s elbow - _ when had he even arrived  _ \- and suddenly he’s spiriting Penny away, following Elizabeth and Chloe’s path to the front door. 

“Thanks for taking the lightest thing for me, Paul!” Beca shouts after him jokingly, and he just lifts a hand to wave at her without even turning around. Typical. 

Finally, the last member of their little family shows up at the open front door, possibly summoned by Beca’s shout. She blinks at the scene on their front lawn, clearly confused by the uproar, before her gaze falls on Beca standing empty-handed next to the car, and her eyes light up. 

“MOMMY!” Alice books it out of the door as fast as her little legs will carry her, until halfway there she notices Chloe hobbling slowly up the path and makes a detour. “Mama!” she shouts, crashing into Chloe’s legs and Beca has never been so happy before that Alice takes after her in height. 

“Hi sweetheart!” Chloe beams and smoothes down Alice’s hair affectionately. “I’m going to go sit down and then we can have a snuggle, okay?” Alice nods, mollified for the moment, and resumes her mad scramble towards Beca. 

Beca prepares herself instead of just letting Alice hit her legs like she did Chloe’s, crouching down and opening her arms. Alice throws herself into them without hesitation and Beca draws her in, Alice automatically tucking her legs around her stomach as she stands up. “Hi baby,” Beca murmurs into her ear as she squeezes Alice tightly to her chest. 

“Mommy home?” Alice draws back to look Beca in the eyes, her face almost too serious, and Beca feels the sting of tears in her eyes. 

“We’re home, Al. We’re not going anywhere,” Beca promises, and Alice melts into her again, tucking her little head into Beca’s neck. Beca takes a moment to savor it, Alice’s still baby-sweet scent of lavender soap mixed with the aroma of a toddler who’d clearly been digging in the dirt all morning. “Were you helping Grandma in the garden?” Beca asks, already knowing the answer; Alice’s favorite summer activity has been to “help” them with the backyard garden Chloe had established, digging random holes and moving rocks to inopportune places. Alice nods, otherwise unmoving, and Beca hums in acknowledgement, squeezing Alice tighter for a moment as she hides a grin in her tuft of hair.

She is so, so glad to be home. 

Paul comes back out and between the two of them - and Alice’s further “help” - they get the accumulation of stuff from their days at the hospital out of the car and into the house. Alice’s eyes light up when she finds Chloe settled on the couch, and Beca has to hastily set her down to avoid Alice throwing herself out of her arms. 

“Mama? Up?” Alice asks piteously - boy, does she have Chloe’s puppy-dog eyes down  _ pat  _ \- and reaches her arms up to Chloe. Chloe bites her lip, clearly torn, and Beca is just drawing in a breath to remind her she is  _ not  _ allowed to pick up Alice yet when Chloe comes to a decision, asking Alice to show off how big she’s gotten by climbing into the spot Chloe pats next to herself on the couch. Alice is more than happy to show off her accomplishments and settles quickly next to Chloe, leaning happily into her side and grinning up at her mother. 

“Just no climbing on mama, okay?” Beca kneels in front of them, pointing at Chloe’s belly. “Mama has an owie and we have to be careful.” 

“Ow?” Alice questions, looking down at Chloe’s stomach before poking lightly at the top of it. “Baby?” Chloe grins up at Beca, smothering a giggle, before looking back down at Alice who is still looking perplexed at Chloe’s shrunken stomach. 

“Actually, there’s no more baby in mama’s stomach!” Chloe says brightly, but Alice just looks perplexed. 

“You want to see something cool?” Beca asks her, and doesn’t wait for a reply before turning around, knowing Elizabeth must have Penny somewhere close by. Her mother-in-law doesn’t disappoint, quickly swooping in to hand her off, and Beca settles carefully on the couch next to Alice, unwrapping the bundle of blankets she’d somehow already been wrapped in. “This is the baby!” 

Alice looks back and forth several times between Chloe’s stomach and the small squirming thing Beca is holding before apparently deciding Beca is trying to trick her.

“No. Baby.” Alice is resolute, pointing at Chloe’s stomach, and this time Chloe can’t hold in her laugh. 

Before Beca can get stuck in a loop of trying to convince Alice that the baby she’s holding is the same baby they’ve been talking about for months in Chloe’s stomach - sometimes they are  _ so  _ alike it’s almost unbelievable - Chloe steers them in a better direction.

“Okay, baby was in my stomach. Alice, that’s your  _ sister _ . Her name is Penny. Can you say Penny?” Alice echoes her easily, and then leans in for a closer look. “You can touch her,” Chloe encourages, and Alice reaches out a hesitant finger to prod at Penny’s tiny fist. When Penny grabs her finger, Alice lights up with a smile. 

“Sister!” she proclaims, and Beca feels her heart clench, watching their oldest child interact with the newborn for the first time. She’d spent months worrying that Alice would feel replaced by the new baby, or not understand what was happening; after almost a week worrying that Alice wouldn’t forgive them for disappearing on her, that she would resent the baby for taking them away. What she’d forgotten to account for was how heartrendingly amazing this exact moment would be. 

“Do you want to hold her?” Beca asks softly, promising to help her when Alice is clearly nervous about the prospect. They maneuver carefully, settling her into Alice’s arms in a way that lets Beca keep most of the weight, and they watch as Alice takes in her sister with wonder. Beca lets go of her worries about Alice being too rough with her as her fingers trace carefully over a tiny nose, plump cheeks, and back down to tiny hands, emitting a happy squeal as Penny grips it again. 

Beca looks over at Chloe, trying to pretend her eyes aren’t filled with tears threatening to spill over, and stretches over to kiss her softly. Of course, it’s only after that she realizes Paul is a few feet away with a camera, snapping away, and Beca can’t even be annoyed about it - just thrilled that these magical first moments as a real family of four have been captured. 

And then, of course, Penny starts screaming. Alice pulls her hands away, immediately worried, and Chloe puts an arm around Alice again, hugging her gently.

“It’s okay, honey. She’s just hungry.” Alice’s mouth makes a little ‘O’ of understanding, and she looks up at her mom.

“Sister wants boob,” Alice tells her commandingly, and at that everyone in the room finally loses it. 

She’s right, though, so Beca helps Chloe get set up before handing Penny over, Alice watching them intently. Now Beca is the nervous one - this is the moment she’s really unsure whether or not Alice will be jealous of the new baby. But she takes it in stride, not putting up a fuss about sharing, and instead climbs down and tugs Beca away to show her what sort of things she got up to during her days with the grandparents. 

 

 

* * *

 

They wait until Alice has been tucked into bed that night, Elizabeth and Paul having excused themselves to the guest room to give them some privacy (and, Beca imagines, a break after being childcare for days on end), to video call the Bellas and finally introduce them to Penny. 

Beca can’t help but smile as the call rings, thinking back to the first time they had done this, then just settling into the idea of being parents. Now there’s two mini-Mitchells, and that first call feels like a lifetime ago. But the girls all coo over Penny - Beca can visibly tell when Aubrey starts shopping for plane tickets during the call - and even Amy has nice things to say about the baby. (For Amy, “not gross”  _ is  _ high praise.) 

In true 0-to-60 Penelope fashion, a few minutes into the call she goes from sweet and cooing to enraged and screaming about - something. She’d fed and been changed just before they called, so it isn't that, and Chloe must assume she has trapped wind as she props her up to try to burp her again. But that doesn’t work either, and Chloe looks helplessly to Beca as the conversation grinds to a halt. 

In the next moment, Emily bursts into song - one she hasn’t heard yet, Beca notes in the back of her head - and she sees everyone else match her own grin before they all join in as accompaniment. Chloe can’t join in - sliced open abdominal muscles don’t exactly lend themselves to singing - but Beca does, and it only takes a few seconds more before Penny calms, her little body relaxing into Chloe’s chest. 

“She is definitely your daughter,” Stacie teases, and Beca can only shrug and nod in response. However -

“You’re recording that and sending it to us,” she demands of Emily. “Cell phone, for now. You’re flying in when I get back in to the studio though.” 

“I’m flying in next week,” Aubrey informs her, and that starts Emily shopping for plane tickets immediately, and Beca can only laugh. This is their family. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know, it's been 84 years. I'm terrible. I received so many messages about this fic while I was ~gone and they were so encouraging and uplifting and sweet, and eventually I got my shit together enough to repay you guys for that kindness. <3  
> And then PP3 made me cry. So here we are!  
> Honestly, [this shit](http://gohandinhand.tumblr.com/post/171544247159) was a huge motivating factor for finishing this. Did you recognize it in the chapter? Yes, yes you absolutely did. 
> 
> I plan on there being more updates, but make no promises as to how quickly. But I will swear it'll be faster than a year and a half. Absolutely no more than a year, for sure. ;)

**Author's Note:**

> I have a working computer again and it's finally here!  
> Bechloe babies multichapter starting now! I have a small list of prompts I'm going to work through (in chronological order) but feel free to send things to my askbox at gohandinhand.tumblr.com!


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